Courtney Love Sued For Defamation Over Vicious Tweets

That's one of the issues of contention is this unusual lawsuit by
fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir against
Courtney Love, over vicious (and allegedly
false) tweets that Love wrote about the designer to her 40,000+
followers.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Simorangkir was
demanding payment from Love for several thousand dollars worth of
clothes, and Love responded (not at all unusually for her) by
blasting her over Twitter.

Beginning March 17, 2009, Love announced to her followers that
Simorangkir was a

...drug-pushing prostitute with a history of assault and
battery who lost custody of her own child and capitalized on
Love’s fame before stealing from her. “She has received a VAST
amount of money from me over 40,000 dollars and I do not make
people famous and get raped TOO!” Love wrote.

Now Simorangkir is suing Love for defamation on the basis that
these intentionally false statements destroyed her fashion
career, thus entitling her to enormous damages, potentially
millions of dollars.

This trial, set to begin January 18th in Los Angeles, is the
first major trial about a celebrity's tweets, and lawyers for
both Love and Simorangkir will have to demonstrate whether the
typical Twitter user would interpret Love's tweets as facts or
opinion.

The case will bring up key issues as to whether Twitter and other
social media platforms can be used, particularly by public
figures such as celebrities, to freely vent their opinions
without fear of reprisal, or if they are regarded as credible
news sources and thus should be employed with some
responsibility.

Folks who might want to pay particularly close attention to this
lawsuit include: Sarah Palin, Keith Olbermann, and Andrew
Breitbart.